Brayden's 3rd Birthday

Brayden celebrated his 3rd birthday this past Friday.  When I started going through his pictures trying to pick out the ones I'd like to share to show his milestones these came to mind. I don't have any pictures taken of Brayden at the hospital without all the wires and tubes he was attached to. He was born exactly 3 weeks early and weighed 8lbs. It brings tears to my eye's remembering what his 1st week of life was like.  It was a rough week for our family.

The above picture was taken when Brayden was still in the Prescott Valley Hospital. He was about 3 hours old. The below picture was taken when he was 4 days old. I had been warned the night before I left him at the NICU in Phoenix that the next day his I.V would no longer be in his leg. By this time his little veins in both hands and his legs could no longer be used. I was told his I.V would be placed in the side of his head or his neck. It was still a bit of shock to see his I.V sticking out of his head. When I saw him, I couldn't hold back the tears. I sat and cried and cried and cried. It was hard to see him with a needle sticking out of his head! 

        After getting Brayden home my best friend, April, took some newborn shots. These are my favorite. I love the green bow!

    I love his wrinkles!

Grandma Heaton made his blessing outfit. 

Then we were celebrating his 1st birthday!

This is one of my most favorite pictures of Brayden. He is such a fun, loving little guy!

                  Then we celebrated his 2nd birthday. He loved/loves animals so the cake was perfect!

   He's sure grown up. I'm so thankful this little guy is a part of our family. He makes me laugh all the time.

       And now he's 3!  

As with tradition we had pancakes for breakfast, his favorite.

    He asks for pancakes for breakfast/lunch and dinner.

It was HILARIOUS to watch him blow out the candles. They each got blown out one at a time. By the third candle he kept putting his hand on his forehead. The closer his face got to the candle the closer his hand got to his eyes. When asked what he was doing he said the candle was HOT! It was burning him.

Trying to get a decent picture of this little guy in nearly impossible right now. He puts his hands up to his head like he's holding the camera and says "cheese".

This little man loves letters. His favorite show to watch is Leap Frog, any Leap Frog. He knows and recognizes every letter. He can almost tell you what each letter says correctly too. He reminds me of Hunter, he loves to learn new things. So, for his birthday we got him the Leap Frog magnet that sticks to the fridge. When a letter is placed in the box "Tad" says the letter and the sound it makes. Being I bought it off eBay it came with a word Leap Frog magnet too. When a 3-letter word is spelled out "Tad" again sounds out all the letters and says the word. He's loving this. He got some lacing farm animals which were a big hit when we took them to sacrament meeting this past Sunday. He also got 2 battery operated cars that drive themselves on Hunter's old car track and some "Disney Cars" bath supplies. I think his absolute favorite was a book that we gave him, "The Three Little Pigs". I don't remember when or exactly how it started but several months ago at nap time and bedtime instead of reading him a story I would tell him a story. He quickly took a liking to The Three Little Pigs story. Almost on a daily basis I am asked to tell him the story. I love it and he loves it. When I saw the book on Amazon a few weeks ago I knew I had to get it. Especially when the price was only $2.75 and had free shipping with our Amazon Prime. He Know's the story almost by heart. Many times, since Friday I have found him "reading" the story out loud to himself. He's got the basics down and is learning to tell the smaller details now. I wish I had a video camera to catch it on. It is so fun to see!

Brayden wanted a "Diego" cake. I had plans of making Diego out of fondant and an animal to go by his side. However, I got a bit busy trying to finish up my last online class and waited till the day before his birthday to begin. Fondant takes about 72+ hours to dry hard so when I wait like I did I have to add gum paste to it so that it will harden much quicker. Thursday night I realized I didn't have any gum paste to add. Not having a Wal Mart or Michaels down the street and knowing that plain fondant wouldn't work I had to grab 2 of his toys to use as our cake topper.  I also had the intentions of making some animals out of royal icing to place on the side of the green cake. OOPS!!! Didn't have one of the main ingredients for that too. I really didn't plan very well for his cake. Even though I didn't get the cake done the way I had envisioned or wanted to do it, Brayden was thrilled that his name was on it. If Brayden sees a word with a B and Y he thinks, and will argue with you, that it says his name. He loved the fact his name and letters were on his birthday cake.  I realized to late what horrible lighting I had when I took his pictures. This is the best I got!

Happy Birthday big boy!

I love you.